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# fallait — French to English

How French *fallait* is translated into English in open, checked parallel texts: 1 translation with example sentences.

The Elamur Dictionary has no French section yet; the English translations below link to their meanings where it has them.

Sentence pairs counted, by form: fallait (44 119). By style: everyday 141 · literary 47 · biblical 19 · parliamentary 1 759 · legal and administrative 222 · UN documents 41 931.

## needed

Used about 15 248 times in the texts (everyday ≈ 24 · literary ≈ 1 · biblical ≈ 1 · parliamentary ≈ 330 · legal and administrative ≈ 42 · UN documents ≈ 14 851). Forms: need, needed.

- Il nous **fallait** une victoire.
  We **needed** a win.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by lovasoa and CK · checked, community translation · [\#4501163](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4501163) [\#4749742](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/4749742))

- La route devenait de plus en plus difficile; le sol montait; les éclats de roches s'ébranlaient, et il **fallait** la plus scrupuleuse attention pour éviter des chutes dangereuses.
  The way was growing more and more arduous, the ascent steeper and steeper; the loose fragments of rock trembled beneath us, and the utmost care was **needed** to avoid dangerous falls.
  ([Project Gutenberg books (Verne, Hugo, Maupassant and their translators)](https://www.gutenberg.org/) · Project Gutenberg, public domain · checked, professional translation · verne journey centre earth, row 1304)

- Comme il **fallait** qu’il passât par la Samarie,
  He **needed** to pass through Samaria.
  ([World English Bible and Louis Segond 1910](https://ebible.org/) · World English Bible; Louis Segond 1910; public domain, eBible.org · checked, professional translation · JOH 4:4)

- Rien n'est plus faux : Sharon a clairement dit qu'il **fallait** relier la colonie de Kiriat Arba au Tombeau des Patriarches.
  Ariel Sharon has clearly said that there is a **need** to build a link between the settlement of Qiriat Arba and the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
  ([Europarl v8](https://www.statmt.org/europarl/) · Source: European Parliament proceedings, Europarl v8 (Koehn 2005) via OPUS (Tiedemann 2012) · checked, professional translation · segment 405966)

- Il **fallait** un minimum de 41 travailleurs pour faire fonctionner l’usine.
  A minimum of 41 employees were **needed** to operate the factory.
  ([DGT-TM v2021](https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/language-technology-resources/dgt-translation-memory_en) · Source: European Commission, DGT-TM (Steinberger et al. 2012), re-used under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU; the Commission keeps ownership of the data · checked, professional translation · segment 5632615)

## More sentences

Sentence pairs with the word where no single translation was found: it may be translated by a phrase, or left out.

- Il **fallait** que je vois ça de mes propres yeux.
  I just had to see this for myself.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by sacredceltic and CK · checked, community translation · [\#2362234](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2362234) [\#2368277](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/2368277))

- Il lui dit qu'il arrivait de Paris pour affaire de vie et de mort et qu'il **fallait** qu'il parlât à son maître à l'instant même.
  He told him that he had come from Paris on a matter of life and death, and that he was to speak with his master at once.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by menaud and menaud · checked, community translation · [\#13139410](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13139410) [\#13139393](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/13139393))

- Je sais que j'ai fait ce qu'il **fallait** faire.
  I know I did the right thing.
  ([Tatoeba](https://tatoeba.org/) · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR · sentences by Adelpa and CK · checked, community translation · [\#3330117](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/3330117) [\#6286148](https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/6286148))

## Grammar

Notes on grammar and translation on Mova: [French grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/fr/) · [English grammar](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/) · [translating between English and French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/pairs/en-fr/) · [translating from French](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/from-fr/) · [translating into English](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/translation/into-en/).

## About these examples

Translations are found by how often the two words stand in the same sentence pairs, and the highlighted words are matched automatically: both are approximate. Counts are estimated from a sample of each source. Every example names its source and licence. [Submit a better translation or example](https://md.translate.elamur.ai/free/en/submit/?pair=fr-en&word=fallait).


Every example is quoted under its source's licence and credited with it; the rest of the site is open under the Elamur Cosmic License.